Bava Metzia 116 - June 23, 17 Sivan

This week's learning is sponsored by the Storch, Joseph, and Cohen families for the refuah shleima of their dear friend Jenny, Esther Gittel Bat Miriam v''Asher Anshel. "We love you Jenny." If one seizes as collateral any item that is used for one purpose but made up of two parts, one transgresses two negative commandments. This is learned from the verse about the millstone, which is made of two parts. There was a case where one seized a slaughtering knife for collateral. Rava and Abaye disagreed about whether the creditor was able to keep it for repayment of the loan. Abaye ruled that since it was needed for food, the creditor had to return it and could turn to the court to get his money back. Rava ruled that since he could have lied and said the knife was his, the creditor could keep the knife as repayment of the loan. If a jointly owned house (one lives on the main floor and one upstairs) collapsed, how do they split the pieces that fell? If one rents out the upstairs of the house and the floor gets ruined, the owner must fix it. Rabbi Yosi thinks both sides need to pay part. If the owner doesn't fix it, the renter can move in downstairs. Rav and Shmuel disagree about whether this is true if most of the floor is destroyed or even a small part of 4x4 handbreadths. The root of their debate is whether or not we assume a person can live upstairs while having some of their vessels downstairs.